Back construction for foundation garment



June 28, 1960 o. ERTESZEK BACK CONSTRUCTION FOR FOUNDATION GARMENT Filed Jan. 19, 1959 E Go:

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United rates Patent BACK CONSTRUCTION FOR FOUNDATION GARMENT Olga Erteszek, Los Angeles, Calif. (7915 Haskell Ave., Van Nuys, Calif.)

Filed Jan. 19, 1959, Ser. No. 787,408

Claims. (Cl. 128-547) This invention has to do with improvements in foundation garments, particularly of the girdle type composed at least in part of elastic fabric and designed to fit about and elastically confine the waist and hips of the wearer.

The invention has among its primary objects the improvement of such garments with respect to their construction at the rear of the waist, and to the end of affording greater comfort to the wearer while confining the wearers body at the waist to that degree necessary for maintenance of the desired shape and contour. More specifically, the invention contemplates relieving the elastic continuity of the garment about the waist by an opening at the rear center, and compensating for the interrupted confinement given by the body of the garment, by interconnectable flaps so associatedwith the opening as to complete the confinement to the degree necessary.

Accomplishment of these objectives presents the difficulty of avoiding bulging of the flesh within the body opening, and resulting discomfort to the wearer. The problem has been solved in accordance with the invention by the extent and shape characteristics given the garment body opening, and the related positions and extents of the overlying flaps. It is found that by forming the opening to converge downwardly from the waist in an essentially V-shape, the tendency for the above mentioned bulging is minimized to a degree that will permit any required confinement within the area of the opening to be accomplished by the flaps. In addition to aifording greater freedom and comfort to the wearer about the waist, the presence of the opening relieves the waist to a degree facilitating putting on and removing the garment.

The invention has various additional features and objects, suchas the relation of the waist opening to a rear center panel of the garment body, and the employment of flexible stays at the locations of the flap hinges. All these as well as further details will be understood from the following description of the accompanying drawing illustrative of a typical embodiment of the invention, and in which:

Fig. 1 is a front view of the garment;

Fig. 2 is a view showing the rear of the garment with the flaps interconnected;

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 showing the flaps open and exposing the body opening;

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 2 showing one of the flaps open to expose the double row of fasteners, and

Fig. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary section on line 55 of Fig. 2.

The body of the garment, generally indicated at 10, may be of any suitable construction formed partially or entirely of elastic material or sections properly associated and designed to shape the garment substantially "ice as shown. Merely as illustrative, the body of the garment is shown to comprise front sections or panels 11 of elastic fabric stretchable both vertically and horizontally, and sewed at their inner edges to a panel 12 which is stretchable vertically but has limited or no significant horizontal stretchability. At their outer edges panels 11 are sewed to side panels 13 made of a material like the center panel 12.

Referring to Figs. 2 and 3, the rear of the garment preferably is formed of panels 14 stretchable vertically and horizontally and sewed to the side panels 13. The rear center panel 15 converges upwardly toward the waist of the garment and preferably is made of fabric like the panels 12 and 13 which is stretchable vertically but not significantly transversely of the garment.

The rear center waist portion of the body 10 contains the V-shaped opening 16 which may extend downwardly a distance of around three inches, in a typical instance, to the top of the center panel 15. At the inside of the garment, the edges adjacent the opening 16 may be faced with a soft binding material 18. A pair of elastic flaps 19, preferably stretchable both vertically and horizontally, are attached at 20 to the body 10 at locations near the outer extents of the opening 16, the flaps being vertically coextensive with the opening so as to fully overlie the latter when thefree edges 21 of the flaps are brought together in the overlying relation shown in Figs. 2 and 5. One of the flaps 21a is shown to carry a row of fastener sections 22 engageable with companion sections 23 secured in rows 24 and 25 to the inside of the other flap 211), so as to permit of variable overlap in the secured condition of the flaps. Thus the flap interattachment may be adjusted or accommodated to the wearers body so that the flaps can fully and elastically confine to the degree necessary the waist of the wearer Within the area of the opening 16.

In order to alford properly contoured support for the garment at the rear and particularly in relation to the described opening and flap arrangement, I preferably provide a pair of flexible stays 26 received within pockets 27 at the flap hinge locations 20, the stays being free Within the pockets so as not to interfere with the vertical stretchability of the panels 14.

I claim:

1. A girdle-type foundation garment comprising a body composed of elastic sections and adapted to elastically confine the waist and hips of the wearer, the top rear center of the body containing a downwardly converging, essentially V-shaped opening for relief of full elastic encirclement of the waist by the body of the garment but affording downward increasingly greater confinement by reason of convergence of the edges of the opening to an apex, a pair of flaps made of elastic material secured to the body at locations disposed at opposite sides of said opening and beyond its lower edges, said flaps extending inwardly of the opening from said locations to fully overlie the opening and to overlap at the center thereof, and fasteners carried by said flaps for attachment of their inner free overlapping edge portions in such overlying relation to the opening.

2. A garment according to claim 1, in which the body of the garment has an upwardly convergent rear center panel terminating at the apex of said recess.

3. A garment according to claim 1 in which the body contains a pair of flexible stays at the junctures of said fiaps with the body.

4. A garment according to claim-1, in which said flaps fasteners attachable at difierent positions 6f 7 the flap overlap. a 5. A garment according to claim 1, in which the body 7 of the garment has an upwardly convergent rear center References Citedlin the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Brassington June 4, Graves -Dec. 4, Erteszek l- Feb. 21, Scheinberg Jan. 27,

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